Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Now that we are past the deadline for submissions for our Educational Technology Experimentation grant, we would like to thank all of you who have applied. The response to this competitive grant program exceeded all expectations, yielding over 150 initial proposals. We hope to get back to each of you before the end of December.

We hope you understand that in contrast to many of AVI CHAI’s grant programs for day schools, this grant program is competitive. With more than 150 applicants, we can only ensure that a small percentage of ideas will be funded.

Each application will be reviewed and evaluated by a number of people. We are sure that the selection process will be difficult, and it is likely that deserving applicants will not receive funding. Within the next several weeks, a small group will be invited to submit fuller proposals. Unfortunately, the remaining applicants will have to be turned down.

Please know that we have noticed recurring themes in your applications, so even if you receive notification that we cannot fund your request at this time, please know that we are paying heed to your educational technology needs.

This grant program was different for AVI CHAI in another way as well - we wanted to see if we could reach beyond the front office to the classroom teachers. We’ve heard from many of you that you would appreciate having a central structure for communicating and sharing technology ideas, so we will be giving some thought to how we might address that need as well.

Thank you again for taking the time to send us your proposal. We hope to get back to you shortly.